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Sitting in the backyard of his lovely Old North home this week, businessperson Paul Cheng disagreed when told he has no chance of becoming London’s next mayor.

Even a complimentary caveat — that there’s reason to believe his big-spending campaign could help decide which of the Big 3 front-runners does win — didn’t sit well with the well-heeled, straight-talking mayoral hopeful.

It’s hard to perceive Cheng, an oil-and-gas exploration consultant with almost no political experience, could be in a dead-heat with perceived front-runners Matt Brown, Roger Caranci and Joe Swan. But his effort is impressive.

He’s so far spent $20,000 of his own money on advertising — TV spots and bus-stop signs — and plans to spend more by the Oct. 27 vote. So what will that buy him?

Recent history suggests it may, at least, make him the candidate who helps tilt the final outcome of the Swan-Caranci-Brown showdown.

Even today, some DeCicco-Best backers will tell you: Had Etheridge not drawn so many votes, DeCicco-Best would have won.

It’s hard not to see a similar scenario with Cheng. And one could assume his platform — all about creating jobs and boosting business — will appeal to would-be Swan and Caranci voters. So he could be to Brown what Etheridge was to Fontana.

But Cheng isn’t interested in finishing fourth in what’s now a field of 14 contenders. He wants to become mayor, even if it means taking what he says would be a large pay cut.

“Jobs is the top thing,” he said. “They (the Big 3) are all the same. They’re the three amigos. (London) is dying. Is that what you want? This is their legacy. They can’t get away from this.”

He’s blunt about the vaunted London Plan — “a very painful fantasy” — and doesn’t mince words about what makes him different as a candidate.

“I’m a businessman pretending to be a politician. These others are politicians pretending to be businessmen,” Cheng said. “Have they ever done anything significant in their own (professional) life? (My) business experience translates into management in politics.”

Cheng ran for MP in London under the Reform party banner in 1993, finishing third behind winner Joe Fontana.